Keeners at New River Academy Ripin' it up

KEENER COACHES ALL ADVANCE TO FINALS

It was a spectular show tonight under the lights for the Men's Semi-Finals. I am pleased to report our Keener Coaches - EJ, Stephen, Nick and Joel all move to finals tomorrow!
Joe Kowalski from Thun

FINALS WEEKEND AT WORLD'S 2009

Well, this it - crunch time in Thun, Switzerland.
In Junior Women it’s Alexandra Shallhorn and Katie Kowalski
In Junior Men it’s Michael Palmer, Aussie James, Keegan Grady, Dane Jackson, Devyn Scott and Jason Craig
In Senior Women it’s Emily Jackson and Ruth Gordon
In Senior Men it’s Joel Kowalski, Stephen Wright, Eric Jackson and Nick Troutman
We wish them all well!
Joe Kowalski in Thun

Peace Out !

Hey everyone,
its Tamara , this is the last blog i'll be writing while i'm here at keeners. I'd just like to thank everyone so much ! The coaches, the co-ordinators, Joe and to everyone that made keeners happen. I have said it before, it has been amazing!! I can't belive its over ! Its been a really good 5 weeks , you know that when you finish it off with 4 stitches and a black eye, no pain no gain haha. I have learned more here than I ever thought I could, its been a wild and fun ride. I can't wait till I get to go kayaking again ! And I'll see you out on the river ! After I have healed up of course :P

Later ,
Tamara :)

bye bye ottawa. ..

Hey it's peter i have had a good time at keeners i cant beleve i am leaveing it went by so fast i am so sad bye everyone thankyou for reading my blogs and i hope you have a great long wekend bye...

Farewell

Well everybody tommrow is my last day here, This summer has been absolutley amazing. I have learned more than i ever thought i could, and had new oppertunites like being an instructor for Ottawa Kayak School. I have made some of the best friends anybody could have ever had Craig Hull, Stephen Forester, James Metcalf, I could just list awesome people all day. This program truely spits out the worlds best freestyle kayakers, and i feel very honored to come out of this program. This program gives you the ability to take your kayaking where ever you can dream it, Craig Hull and I decided to start our own Team " TreeHouseMafia" and this spring im going out to California to do some good boating with Craig and get some awesome footage, that is just one of the examples of how this program helps your kayaking grow and push the limits of this beautiful sport. I would like to thank our awesome keener cordinators Jackie and Sam, nobody could have done half the job they did, they were great to have around! And of course the instructors for giving us the adivce and tips we need to take are boating to the next level. And lastly Joe for having this program, it's the best program in the world. Well im off to start my packing, Thanks!

Until Next Year
*Jamie*

Keeners on top at World's

There are about 250 competitors from 35 diferent countries at World's. 21 of them are Keeners (Keeners, Graduates or Instructors). Of the 21 Keeners, 17 are moving to the quarter finals. It is a tremendous showing for our Keeners.

Off the water Keeners are still front and center. Last night Keener Graduate, Competitor and now instructor Joel Kowalski premiered his new movie, "Stakeout" in front of a revved up audience of 300. Keener Guest Instructor Rush Sturges warmed up the crowd with his lates film about Africa.

Signing out in Thun,

Joe Kowalski

KEENER LOVE IN AT THE WORLD'S

Thun, Switzerland looks more like Keenerville than it does a medieval town at the foot of the alps. Keeners are everywhere and doing well. Yesterday, Tuesday Sep 1 saw Keener Instructors ripping it up. Led by Nick Troutman's 2,400 point ride and followed by Billy Harris, Head Coach Stephen Wright, Eric Jackson and Joel Kowalski, Keeners did well. All will be competing in the Semi-Finals on Friday.

Junior Women were led by Katie Kowalski and Alexandra Shallhorn who will represent Keeners on Saturday's Semi-Finals. Other Keeners paddling well were Emery Katie and Tracy.

The Junior Men are next with the entire US and Canadian team all Keeners or graduates.

Keeners !!!

Hey there,
Tamara here, last night we were asked what we wanted for this mornings breakfast and I had the most amazing idea: BLT's !!! Unfortunately I was not able to eat the delicious breakfast and i was also off the river today due to a sore thought and a bit of a sinus infection. The good news is that I'm feeling much better now that I've had a lot of rest and I'm looking forward to getting back on the river a.s.a.p. ! The water levels have been dropping steadily for the past few days, and hopefully they keep going down so that Garb comes in ! I have never seen the wave before and I have heard so much about it, so i really hope it comes in while I'm still here. So as I wrote in my last blog I've been working on my loops, kick flips, spins, roundhouses, double pumps and bow stalls. I have also been practicing my back deck roll like crazy, and now I can keep my whole head out of the water when I do it ! Last week Jackie took us into town and we went to the movies, it was so much fun ! We went to see G.I. Joe, and got treated to popcorn and slushie's ! It was awesome, hopefully we get to do it again some time . Also for this Thursday we have been planing to go on a trip to a different river. I am really looking forward to it because it is always good to go to new places, learn new things and run a new river ! For the past week we have been learning tons about river safety which I think is great and is also a really good skill to have.
So far my stay here at keeners has been AWESOME ! I have met so many amazing people, learned so many new things and I will never forget it ! It has been a really great experience and I am so grateful that i am able to come here and ,well experience it ! We have one of the best rivers in the world, we have the best coaches in the world, and we have the most awesome kids that come from all over the world just to be here. Yep, that's how sweet it is !
I still have two more weeks left here at keeners so I am going to make the most of it and try to accomplish as much as i possibly can! Thanks everyone and I'll write again soon.
Peace,
Tamara :)

keeners (last week)

Hey its Sean checking in. This week was awesome this morning me and Gaylan made breakfast. it was pretty good i think BLTs should be for breakfast everyday. The water levels have been messed up! its been going down but its impossible to predict. this morning it was 1.5 and by lunch it was 2.5 very strange. It skipped right over baby face (so sad.) i really want to blunt more consistently and maybe flat water loop cartwheels in a hole for sure.
tuesday we went to the movies we saw GI joe it was cool.
on thursday were going to La chine it will be awsome. my stay has been awsome
and i want to thank every person from wt and keeners for making my stay unforgetable ( im leaving next week.)
thanks for reading see you later.
sean

hey its Galen this week we are cooking breakfast and dessert today me and Sean made B.l.T.'s and they were great! At the beginning of this week the level was at five and it dropped to 1 1/2 early this morning and has ben steadily rising all day long. it was nice because we were able to surf garb but you couldent do much on it. my goals for this week are flat water loops and getting more used to the all star because i just mooved up to it from the old star.
We are going to the lachine on thrsday i havent ben therre and i am locking forward to it. We have ban haveing alot of river seafty training and today we roped in all the teen kayakers. My stay so far has ben really fun i have watched alot of movies and played crainem.

Todays Breakfast

hi my name is Peter Semehen i am 14yrs old and i started kayaking last summer and Keeners has helped me alot .every morning we assign two Keeners to make breakfast. Today we had BLT's and they were amazing . The water levels have been changing alot so the river has been changing it is great. BYE

Week 2 at Keenervill

This is Ian reporting in for my second blog as a keener. We kicked of this week great with a full day up at McCoys doing river running a playing on the great play at this level. Yesterday corner wave was prime and all the keeners had a great time surfing it; especially because with such a small group a keeners you never have to worry about not having enough time on the wave.
The breakfasts here have been great, this morning Sean and Galen made up blt's, needless to say they were fantastic thanks guys. With the small group a different set of keeners gets to make breakfast every day, it ends up working out really well making it so we get a great HOT breakfast almost every day.
This week water is low so we may take a trip to an other river like the Gatineau or we may even trek in down to Montreal for Lachine because it has came in the last couple days, either way it's something I'm really looking forward to.

Regards Ian

Last week on the Ottawa

Hey its Liam here, this week has been really fun this mornings breakfast was awesome we had BLT's they were so good. Also today the water level went down from 3 to 1 we all really wanted garbe to come in I got a long surf on it but it needs to drop still to at least -2. Also Clay has been teaching us a lot of river running skills and we are going to a different river on Thursday so this week should be a lot of fun.

First week on the ottawa!!!

Hi my name is Peter Semehen and i am 14yrs old .This is my second year kayaking and i love it i am from Toronto and i was here for the second session this summer and i loved it so much i came back. I have had a great first week . I hope to have two more great weeks on the ottawa.

last week on the Ottawa

This is cameron and ive had a great time here. Some highlights of the last week were Boofs at the lorn with tyler fox and looping in brain douche. I also worked hard at corner wave. a 3 hour session left me with confident blunting and a few air blunts. I hope to be back next summer instructing some teens.

Week 2 of Keeners

Hey its Liam here, last week was really good I won the race last week. Also we did a lot of river running last week I really enjoyed it we ran dragons tough, oddayes, and we also did the poor over at the Loran. I had to work this weekand I did the guide your own both days and pumped rafts for a number of hours. I am glad that this was my last weekand working and I am looking forward to my last week at keeners corner wave is in so it should be fun.

First week at keeners

hey its Galen i am finishing up my first week at keeners right now. this week i learned how to do flat water helix's and i got one loop however i am still very inconsistent on them. i dident paddle for about two weeks before i came here and i am getting the feel back and gaining a lot of river running skills. The highlight of my week was on Friday when I ran dragons toung twice and the secconet time i ran it i got worked in the pourover and in the hole at the bottem and the two back straps of my helmit got ripped off. it was awsum!

BackDeck

Hey hey everyone, this week on the Ottawa river I've been super busy practicing new moves and working on the old ones. We have been running the main channel lately, and it has been awesome ! We have such great coaches so there is no doubt that we are and will still be learning so much. I've been working on my back deck rolls and i am getting them every time now ! I have also been sticking some kick flips which i am super happy about ! Everyone has been working hard on loops , and I've almost got mine but i still need some more practice .I can't wait to get back on the river and work on my double pumps and bow stalls !

Peace,

Tamara :)

First week at keeners

This has been a great week on the Ottawa, with all the keeners making a lot of progress in such a short amount of time. At the start of the week several of us learned how to loop when the water was high enough for 7-8 hole to come in.
Friday was also competition day at upper no-name and I ended up with the high score of 190 by accidentally throwing a lunar orbit, and undeserved win but a win none the less. My real score was something more deserving of second, but it was a fun competition and everyone got a laugh out of it.
Overall my stay here at keenervill has been great days filled with kayaking and surphing fills in a whale (pool toy). I mean there isn't much more a person could ask for

Ian

keeners

hey guys its Sean writing again. Due to personal reasons i was forced to take a week off at home but i' am glad to be back. although i miss all the friends i made in the last session i made many new ones. that's a lie i only made 5 new friends but i have 2 returning from last session and 1 returning from last year. that is all of the the keener.
we've been one the main all week (excluding Friday.) i have been learning so much my paddling has improved a whole lot. I've been throwing loops in brain douche and 7-8 hole i completed probably 40 percent but only stuck15 percent. its a work in progress. i got a huge almost aerial blunt on Waikiki.
on Tuesday we went to the movie to see G I Joe parts of it didn't make sence and some parts were corny but over all i enjoyed the movie.
thats it for this week im looking forward to next week.

Loops and Boofs

This week I freshened up on loops at Brain Dutsch and 7/8 Hole. Flatwater loops and Hole loops are going much better. Clay and Tino instructed us down the Main each day and I worked up the confidence to run the the boof and the Lorne. Wednesday and Thursday the level dropped and Corner Wave came in (right next to keener ville) and we ran some new lines down coloseum. The Meltdown line at coli is pretty in intimidating but fun. It involves at presision move over a finger like rockl narrower than a playboat. It is hard to line up for because there are few land marks above the boof and two small waves keep you from see the line until too late. Liam and I both missed our lines multiple times and fell into toast oven like slot hole and got pretty good down time. I am excited to get better at blunting on corner wave. In addition Tyler Fox substituted for tino and had alot of great things to stay about river safety, river running moves and freestyle move on flat water and in waves and holes. I am grateful that tyler came and taught today i really learned alot from him. I think the best thing about the keener program is the diversity of the paddling instruction. Specifically, the changing of instructors from week to week and the ability to learn from a different person each day.
cameron